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Christmas comes early for entangled humpback whale in the Bay of Fundy

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Grand Manan, Canada

A collaborative effort from IFAW's (International Fund for Animal Welfare - www.ifaw.org) &nbsp;Campobello Whale Rescue Team
(CWRT), the Centre for Coastal Studies, DFO agents and a fisherman from the
region of Grand Manan helped a 40 foot humpback whale be freed from 75 lobster
traps and their connecting ropes and anchors and a certain death, today in the
Bay of Fundy.

The CWRT received a call yesterday from a lobster fisherman off the south of
Grand Manan explaining that a humpback whale was trapped in his equipment and
seemed to be carrying the gear of other fishermen as well. Because of the bad
sea conditions, the fisherman communicated the exact location to the CWRT and
left the area.

At 8:00am this morning, the sea was calm enough to
go rescue the whale named PEZ. Mackie Green, leader of the CWRT, two DFO agents
and a member of the Centre for Coastal Studies travelled an hour and a half
through rough seas to find the whale had managed to swim a mile carrying a load
of equipment of over 4000 pounds and then got entangled in a third set of ropes,
traps and anchors.

“He was wound up very badly in rope. He would
have died for sure if we hadn’t set him free” explained Mackie Green, shortly
after the intervention.

The operation took about an hour in which
time three knives were broken and three poles were lost because of the massive
amount of rope wrapping the whale.

The weight of the equipment
mixed with the rough sea conditions left the whale bruised and beaten.
Mackie did not stop until all the ropes and gear were removed including a 6 foot
long piece of rope from his mouth. The rescue team suspects he might have
lost the use of one of his eyes. Fortunately, it was a complete success and PEZ
was completely freed from all fishing gear

“If it was not for the
fisherman making the distress call this whale would be dead which is one of the
reasons why IFAW’s collaboration with fisherman through the CWRT is vital” said
Deb Gleason, Emergency Relief Campaigner with the International Fund for Animal
Welfare.